Duffy's View
By Dave Duffy

December 3, 2004

A cookbook CD-ROM makes sense

Click Here For More Info

We've just put the 338-page BHM cookbook, Backwoods Home Cooking, on CD-ROM and are offering it FREE this Christmas season to anyone who buys the cookbook. Price of the cookbook is $19.95. Price of the CD-ROM separately is $12.95. This is a sensible use for a CD-ROM because you can print out a copy of the recipe you are cooking for easy reference in the kitchen. When I cook kale soup, for example, which is one of John Silveira's contributions to the cookbook, I just print out that page and tape it to the kitchen cabinet.

CD-ROMs are a nice compact way to store and be able to reference material, but a CD-ROM is even more useful when it is a mirror copy of a cookbook, as is the case with this one, because instead of taking up a lot of space by laying that big cookbook on your counter, you can just print out the single recipe page.

If you or a friend are into cooking, you won't be sorry you went for this offer. Not only does it have most of the recipes we've printed in BHM during the past 15 years, neatly organized into categories, but it is printed on quality paper and has a good wire spiral binding - just in case you do want it to lie flat on your counter.

The offer will be good until Christmas day.

November 16, 2004

Running the Boston Marathon -- a good idea at age 60?

You know, sometimes you get an idea in your head and it’s hard to knock it out. About two months ago I decided to run in the Boston Marathon and began training for it by running on my treadmill, lifting weights, working on the heavy bag, etc. I wasn’t in bad shape to begin with, but my endurance certainly wasn’t up to 26 miles, and I was carrying at least 15 extra pounds.

The problem is I’m 60, have had surgery to fuse disks in my neck, currently have disks in my lower spine fusing by themselves, and have had a mild hernia for about three years. When I told my New England cousin, also named Dave Duffy, what I was planning to do, he said, “Are you crazy?”

Cousin Dave lectured me for about an hour, stressing the punishment your body takes in a long road race on a hard surface. He should know because he has run in three Boston Marathons and 150 other road races. Now 61, two hernia operations preclude him from running anymore. He said I’ll probably injure myself.

He made a lot of sense, and of course his advice comes from experience which makes it more valuable. I have limited running experience and have never run in a road race. But I can’t get the idea out of my head. I’ve even begun running at the local high school track to see how my back responds. It responds extremely well. Since I run upright with a nice efficient stride, I think it’s helping align my spine much like a chiropractic treatment would. My mild hernia also has not bothered me.

My guide to training comes, in part, from an article out of my own magazine: Issue 75 (May/June 2002) has a terrific 7-page article by Richard Blunt titled, “To maintain good health you must exercise.” We flew him out to Oregon from Connecticut for a week so I could work with him while he wrote the article. Blunt, like me, is 60 and keeps himself in good shape. About a month ago I asked him if he wanted to run the marathon with me and he said he’d think about it. He didn’t say I was crazy, but of course he has no more running experience than I have.

So I’m slowly working my way to a solution for this idea that won’t leave my head. My training routine so far lasts an hour a day, five days a week. I’ve even lost 10 pounds with it and am down to a fairly strong 160 pounds. My running weight, I think, should be a taut, fat-free 150-155 pounds. I’ve set my sights on a 5K race first to see how I do on pavement. How my body feels will determine my next step. Meanwhile I’ll probably consult the surgeon who fused my neck disks to see what he advises.

While I’ve been training I’ve also been doing a lot of thinking. Specifically, I’m trying to answer the question: Why am I doing this?

Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:

1) I’m sensing my own age and mortality and looking for a way to prove I’m still young and vigorous.

2) For a lot of men, life is going from one adventure to another. At age 60, I have simply discovered another adventure to go on.

3) I’m a product of America’s stress on individual achievement, and running the Boston Marathon at age 60 would be quite an achievement for me.

This idea of running the Boston Marathon seemed so brilliant when I first thought of it. It was just like when I was 20 years old and John Silveira, BHM’s senior editor, and I decided to hitchhike across America. The same rationale was there: “Yeah, that’ll be cool! How many people do that!” We hitchhiked 9,000 miles that summer and talk about it to this day. Maybe this will be my last chance to run the Boston Marathon. If I don’t cripple myself in the process, it sure will be kinda cool.

We’ll see what happens with my training in the coming months.

(To reach Dave Duffy write dave @backwoodshome.com (without the space)

November 9, 2004

Why can’t they just shut up

Liberal Congressman John Conyers went on MSNBC yesterday to insinuate the presidential election was rigged in the states of Florida and Ohio, and he called for a congressional hearing into “voting irregularities.” He made the statements on the equally liberal and anti-Bush program, “Countdown,” hosted by Keith Olbermann.

On CNN, both its domestic and international stations new’s anchors gave heavy play to the website, www.sorryeverybody.com which displays hundreds of apologies from Americans to the world for allowing George W. Bush to be re-elected president. They gave special mention of a chihuahua displaying a sign that read, “I’m sorry that I’m smarter than 59 million Americans. P.S. My brain is the size of a walnut.”

PBS aired a program from the John F. Kennedy School of Government the other day in which journalists discussed the implications of the Bush victory. The general consensus was that Americans are easily misled, as evidenced by the fact that a huge block of Americans get their news primarily from the Fox Network.

Somehow I thought the liberals of the Democratic Party would stop talking for a while once the presidential election was over. But they are worse than ever. Even as American forces are fighting in a major urban battle in Falluja, Iraq, CNN talks about the battle in terms of possible civilian casualties, while Fox News talks about the mission. CNN also has a story about a federal court saying the Bush administration was wrong to classify Guantanimo detainees as illegal combatants. And of course they round out their news with the usual global warming stories.

Far left liberals just don’t stop do they? They either learned nothing from the Bush reelection or it is simply their nature to continue with their far left rhetoric until they drop dead. Why can’t they take a hint from Actor Robert Redford and others who are threatening to move out of the country because they can’t stand the idea of another Bush presidency. At least we could have some peace.

But I don’t think that will happen. As much as they bash America and Americans, they realize there’s no better place. I’d sure like to stop talking politics in this column, but how can you remain silent in the face of these lefties continuing to beat their drums?

November 3, 2004

Thank God it’s over

Living under the specter of tens of thousands of lawyers challenging voting results all over the nation was not a comforting thought over these last few days. I was also glad to get through the mass media’s lopsided siding with Senator Kerry during the last week of the campaign. And, of course, it was good the nation survived the media’s final attempt to influence the campaign, namely its highlighting of these phony early exit polls that supposedly showed Kerry winning going away.

It was gracious of Kerry to concede in the face of election odds that had been insurmountable for most of the night. Perhaps he is sincere when he asks President Bush to do things that unite this divided country. Of course, in the past, talk like that was mainly Democratic-speak for voting for things like national health care, and raising taxes. Kerry’s view of uniting America would probably also include subjugating America to the will of the United Nations.

Yes, I too voted for Bush but not enthusiastically. I want him to win the war against terrorists, but I also want him to stop spending like a drunken sailor. I suspect Bush won because a lot of people felt as I do that winning the war against terrorists was of immediate and greatest concern to America. That war, I feel, includes stopping countries like Iran and North Korea from threatening us with nuclear weapons. Bush, like Reagan, has the courage to stay the course until the war is won. Just as Reagan defeated communism against great criticism from Democrats and foreign nations, Bush will defeat terrorists and their harboring countries under a barrage of the same criticism.

I must admit, however, I do agree with Ralph Nader that the political process must change. The Republicans and Democrats have a lock on the process now. A third party just can’t get started. The rules conspire against them.

But at least it’s all over. The celebrities can now go back to Hollywood, the Vietnam Vets can go back to their memories, and the idea that the electoral college should be replaced by the popular vote can go back in the closet. And The Democratic notion that a Northeast liberal can win the presidency of America can just go away. I can’t imagine they’ll try that again.

September 30, 2004

Let's play Rathergate!

By now we've all heard about Dan Rather getting caught using phony documents in his attempt to go after President Bush's National Guard record. It's been a serious blow to Rather and CBS News, both of whom for years have used the news in a partisan way to go after Republicans. They've been caught in the past, but this was a really big gotcha, largely because it bordered on criminal behavior in that CBS may have colluded with the Democratic National Committee in using the phony documents in an attempt to bring down a President.

However it plays out, it has given me a name-Rathergate- for a game I play often while surfing the TV Networks and the news channels. I take a yellow pad and note the slant or spin a newscaster puts on a story, and whether or not a story favorable or negative to a politician is given big or little play in the newscast. As you might suspect, I've found the Networks, CNN and its affiliates, and NBC biased in favor of Democrats, with only Fox News biased in favor of Republicans. (The one exception on NBC is Scarborough Country which is biased in favor of Republicnas.)

I've intensified my scrutiny of these news outlets as the Presidential election gets closer because I suspected the bias would become more pronounced, and it has. In spite of Dan Rather being caught, all the usual suspects are bashing Bush and promoting Kerry in all sorts of subtle and not-so-subtle ways. I invite you to join me in this game of Rathergate to judge for yourself just how biased newscasters are. This is the perfect season to do this because biased newscasters feel they have a lot at stake.

Some suggestions for your scorekeeping:

Note the spin a newscaster puts on a story, and rate its severity of bias from 1 to 10.

Note how a story is played-as the main feature, or as a small story-and compare it to how important you think the story should have been played. Rate the severity of disagreement from 1 to 10.

Note the selection of feature news stories and see if you think they are selected to denigrate or pump up a particular candidate.

After a week or two, rate the stations. Then you'll have empirical evidence derived from your own experience. I promise you it will be an eye-opening game.

September 22, 2004

Kerry undermines our troops in Iraq

If I were a U.S. soldier in Iraq, I’d be wishing this election season would get over with quickly so American politicians like John Kerry can stop inflaming violence against U.S. troops. Kerry has become a one-man rallying point for Iraqi insurgents. Every time Bush gives an important address, like the one he just gave before the United Nations, Kerry claims Bush is lying. As soon as the President finished speaking before the UN, Kerry told news reporters, “President Bush is not leveling with the UN.”

I realize Kerry is running for President, but we have troops on the ground in Iraq. Shouldn’t there be some restraint? This reminds me of the days in 1969 when Kerry gave testimony before Congress that I thought endangered the lives of our troops in Vietnam, not to mention the lives of our POWs. I had just been released from active duty with the Army in March of 1969 when Kerry began calling my fellow soldiers murderers and baby killers. I didn’t appreciate his remarks then, and I don’t appreciate his remarks now.

Personally I don’t think Kerry is doing himself any good politically by these opportunistic attacks. For one, his assertion that Bush lied to the UN is itself a lie. President Bush spoke truthfully to the UN, but it just wasn’t reflective of the way Kerry sees our war going in Iraq. Secondly, Kerry infuriates people like me, and he infuriates our soldiers and marines on the ground in Iraq. I can guarantee you most of them won’t be voting for Kerry.

We need honest debate in this election season, not political grandstanding that endangers our troops. Unfortunately I don’t believe we’ll get honest debate from Kerry. I believe he was a political opportunist back in 1969 when he launched his political career by attacking our troops in Vietnam, and I believe he is still that same political opportunist who could care less that he endangers our troops in Iraq today. He just wants to be President, and he’ll do anything it takes.

September 3, 2004

Voting for Bush to fight terrorism

Only a month ago I decided I would sit out my first presidential election ever because I didn’t like either Senator Kerry or President Bush. But after some soul searching, and after assessing the important issues over which a President has a lot of control, I’ve decided to vote after all, and I’ll be voting for President Bush. The main issue that has prompted my change of heart is the War on Terrorism. Yesterday’s terrorist murder of Russian school children reinforced my belief that it is a full scale international war that must be won, and I think Bush is a far more resolute war time leader than Kerry would be.

I still don’t like provisions of the Patriot Act in which American freedoms are curtailed, but it’s time to recognize we are a nation in a serious war against Islamic terrorists who would kill our children if they had the chance to. If given an opening, Islamic terrorists would detonate a nuclear bomb in one of our cities, or release chemical or biological agents among us. The terrorist attack on the Russian school children showed them for who they are--manifest evil. There is no negotiating with these people. Whatever cause they have has been bankrupted by their actions.They must be stopped, and America needs a leader like Bush who is willing to bypass the United Nations to go after them in the countries where they lurk. Better to kill them on their soil than have to defend ourselves against them on ours. If they lurk in Iraq, and they do, we need to go there and kill them. If they lurk in Iran and Syria, we will need to go there and kill them. I doubt if Kerry would ever bypass his beloved UN to go anywhere after any enemy. He believes the UN should direct America’s military might. He is very wrong.

I don’t mean to sound like a Republican campaign commercial (believe me, I am not), but our invasion of Iraq was necessary, and before this War on Terrorism is over I think we’ll have to deal with Iran and Syria and North Korea just as forcefully. Countries like France will be more hindrance than help in this war. I think Russia just got their painful wakeup call, and Germany is already helping us in Afghanistan.

Just the other week I attended an energy show called Solfest in California in which anti-war activists held center stage. The “hate America” atmosphere was so prevalent that I packed up BHM’s booth early and left the show. This anti-America segment of our homeland believes America is the enemy, that America is the terrorist, that it is America that must be brought to its knees. I can’t imagine a position that is more opposite from my views. And those Solfest anti-war activists were mainly for John Kerry as our next President, as was evident by the large “Kerry for President” booth at the show and the pro-Kerry pamphlets distributed.

I cannot afford to sit this election out, no matter how much I disagree with Bush. I’ll argue with him and his pals later, after we’ve subdued the terrorists. Right now the country, and the western world, is in for a tough fight. And we can’t be mamby pamby about how we go about the fight. We can’t go to the UN and ask for a permission slip to take out a terrorist-supporting country. There is too much at stake. The Russians just learned that.

How about Kerry’s war record. Since Kerry is the one to bring it up so often, it’s fair game for both praise and criticism, especially since we need a war time President. I am a former Vietnam Era vet, having got out of the Army in 1969, and I witnessed what Kerry said about my fellow soldiers back then. He called them murderers and baby killers. That was a lie. I knew, and still know, many Vietnam vets (my brother Jim served two tours there with the Marine Corps), and none of them were murderers and baby killers. Maybe Kerry murdered civilians, but my friends and my brother didn’t. I can’t imagine having Kerry command our troops today. My daughter’s husband has already been to Iraq once. Do you think he wants to serve under someone like Kerry? Kerry should apologize for calling America’s Vietnam vets murderers.

I guess I’m part of the “bounce” the Republicans apparently got after their Convention. But it wasn’t anything said at the Convention that swayed me. It’s just me waking up to what the most important issues are today, and who is best able to affect those issues.

August 25, 2004

Energy politics go extreme

Solfest

If you missed last weekend's Solfest, California's alternative energy show sponsored by Real Goods, you didn't miss much. It was about as heavy as a show can get on ultra left wing politics--"progressive" politics as they like to call it. Although there were some alternative energy booths there displaying their wares, many of the booths featured environmental quackery, Republican bashing, and anti-business propaganda. Evil corporations that supposedly control the Bush administration were singled out for special attack. Even the mass media, which I and most conservatives and libertarians view as overly sympathetic to "progressive" causes, came under attack by the show's keynote speaker as being sold out to corporate America. Huh? Is that an indication of how far left these people were, or what! This show could have been hosting the communist party convention of the 1930s.

I won't return to Solfest next year unless they promise to tone down their anti-American and anti-business rhetoric. My magazine promotes alternative energy, and this show is the second largest alternative energy show of the year (next to Wisconsin's MREA show that we attended two months ago), but the show has become more of an anti-America event than an energy show. It's a disgrace to the alternative energy movement, and it makes me realize just what an energy-conscious job the MREA organizers have been doing all these years. A few years ago I harshly criticized the MREA organizers for the political content of its show,but compared to Solfest the MREA show seems politics-free.

I think one of the problems with Solfest is that Real Goods' Solar Living Institute, on whose grounds the event was held, is in an area of the central California coast that is home to thousands of modern day hippies and alternative lifestyle devotees. Those people were at Solfest in force, and the smell of marijuana filled the air in several sections of the show. I suppose if you live in that environment for a long enough time you begin to see the world through their distored eyes. However, Real Goods sure doesn't put these extreme views into its big Sourcebook or the catalogs it sends out to the general public. In fact, the general anti-corporate climate of the show was surprising to me. After all, Real Goods is a very successful corporation. It has ridden the public's concern about the environment on a horse made of gold. Seems a bit ironic. But what the heck. That's just me I suppose. I'm a wannabe capitalist who's never made any money. What do I know about how to run a money-making business.

Boston

After Solfest, John Silveira and I flew to Boston for this week to take lessons on how to operate the BHM website. Oliver Del Signore, who lives just outside of Boston, originated the website years ago and has operated it since. It's a dangerous situation to have only one person know how to operate a crucial part of BHM, so John and I will become his backup. I guess the dope-smoking hippies attending Solfest would view John and I as dangerous corporate slugs trying to ensure the continued mental enslavement of BHM website visitors.

August 20, 2004

Solfest this weekend

Solfest, one of the two largest energy shows in the country, will be this Saturday and Sunday, August 21 and 22, in Hopland, California, on the grounds of Real Goods' Solar Living Institute. Backwoods Home will be there in force with the publisher (me), senior editor (John Silveira), business manager (Lenie) and associate editor (Annie). My three sons and four-month-old granddaughter, Olga, will also be there. If you're in the area, please stop by and say hello. Hopland is relatively close to our office--a mere seven-hour drive.

My oldest son, Jake, age 12, has been making chocolate chip cookies for the past two days and will give one FREE to anyone who subscribes or renews at the show. The same folks will also get FREE a 384-page anthology, our superb 332-page alternative energy CD-ROM, and an extra issue tacked onto your subscription. Plus we always have other great deals at the show.

This will be an interesting show from two perspectives: energy and politics.

First, there will be lots of how-to energy displays, plus many classes and workshops so you can learn about any aspect of energy you're interested in. This is why I am at the show. Backwoods Home talks about energy in every issue as we think it's an important aspect of the self-reliant life.

Second, there will be lots of far-left politics at the show, particularly in the form of some keynote speakers. Air America, the new liberal radio network that is supposed to give right wing talk radio a run for its money, will be a big presence there. I'm not interested in this stuff, but I put up with it to reach that larger audience interested in the topics covered by Backwoods Home Magazine.

The left wing politics tends to be ardently and strictly anti-Bush and anti-war. Which is a shame because there is a common issue these days that conservatives and liberals should be united on. That is, of course, the new Patriot Act, in which the federal government under Bush is infringing on too many of our personal liberties. But these liberals are basically anti-war, and that's it. For them, it's Vietnam protest time all over again. They don't see a terrorist threat worth going to war for. And they seem not to worry too much about the Patriot Act.

This will be a good show for all of you curious about the very far left. A lot of the folks at this show think Bush is dangerous because he is a far right conservative. That's how far left they are. Bush a far right conservative? Wow! Imagine what they must think of real conservatives?

July 30, 2004

Nowhere to go

While watching some of the speeches at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, I couldn’t help thinking what it must have been like at one of the big Nazi rallies of 1930s Germany. All the perceived “problems” in society were the responsibility of the hated enemy. For the Nazis it was the Jews, for Democrats it’s Bush. The speeches were full of the usual platitudes about how Kerry would make things right again, but they were also full of hate, with exaggerations, distortions, and outright lies. It was very depressing for me, but the left wing zealots in attendance loved it.

But in the past few days I have also read an article in one of my favorite magazines, “Liberty,” which is written for Libertarians like me, and it wasn’t very kind to Bush either--although there was no hate in it. The article, by K.R. Mudgeon, had an opening sentence that rang true to me: “Under Bush’s compassionate ‘conservatism,’ the federal government keeps trampling civil liberties and growing bigger and more expensive.” I won’t restate the article’s case against Bush (e-mail libertycirculation@yahoo.com for a possible copy), but it was fairly compelling, as you would expect if you’ve watched Bush spend our money, grow government, and fight domestic terrorism over the past four years.

Bush’s spending and big government philosophy has made me regret voting for him last time around, although I absolutely would not have voted for Gore. This election I will absolutely not vote for Kerry, who I fear would give our military over to the U.N. and have the U.S. Government kissing France’s ass. But why should I vote for Bush? Can anyone give me a reason, other than to stop Kerry?

In November I’ll be faced with the option of voting once again for the lessor of two evils. That’s what I did last time, when for the first time in many years I did not vote for the Libertarian candidate but voted instead for the Republican Bush because I feared Gore as an ultraleft liberal who would spend the country into oblivion and trample my civil liberties. Isn’t that what Bush has done?

I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I could go back to voting for the hapless Libertarian candidate, whoever that is. But I’m leaning towards sitting out the election. That’s saying something for me, because I have never sat out a Presidential election. And, yes, I know sitting out an election just leaves the political process in the hands of the bastards. But what political process is left for a person like me? The Libertarians pull so little each Presidential election that they don’t even show up on the chart. Mr. Bush has essentially told me over the last four years that he shares none of my beliefs about the way government should be run. The Democratic Party might as well be the communist party of the 30s.

I think maybe it’s time for a person like me to consider that the American political process no longer includes a person of my views. And further, I think it may be time for me to accept the fact that most Americans seem to like it that way. The title of the article in Liberty is “Nowhere to Go.” That’s how I feel.

Luckily I live in the country far away from all this insanity. I can take care of myself and family just fine. If things get so bad that the Republican or Democrat-led Gestapo comes after me for violating some insane law they pass in the future, or perhaps have already passed, I’ll defend myself as best I can. Sadly, I have nowhere to go this election but home and hope that this era, like that of the Nazis, will pass.

June 12, 2004

Saying goodbye to President Reagan

I and my family were fortunate enough to be among the thousands of people just outside the Point Mugu Naval Air Station in Southern California Friday when Air Force One landed bearing the body of former President Ronald Reagan. Mr. Reagan was being returned from his morning funeral at the Washington National Cathedral to be buried in his presidential library in nearby Simi Valley. The plane passed directly over our heads a mile from touchdown. A half hour later the president’s funeral motorcade passed by us on its way to the presidential library, and I felt honored to be able to pay my last respects in person. Being a former member of the military, I saluted the Commander in Chief.

The crowd was huge, estimated to be about 150,000 lining the approximate 50-mile route from Point Mugu to Simi Valley. The size of the crowds was bigger than local officials anticipated so the motorcade was delayed getting to the library. I went back to Grandma’s house and watched the “private” presidential library funeral service on TV. Reagan had always surprised the pundits with his popular appeal, and he did so in death as he did in life. It was wonderful to see the throngs of people waving flags and wishing him goodbye.

Reagan will be remembered as the American president who won the Cold War, which was a monumental achievement, much greater than his detractors would have us believe. It came as a total surprise to his liberal media critics, who ridiculed his ideas and his military buildup at every opportunity. His critics often called him President Raygun to protest his military buildup, and the media dubbed his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) as starwars. The left hated Reagan back then, and many of them still hate him today, although most of them are being uncharacteristically respectful during this time of national mourning.

What Reagan did was essentially bankrupt the Soviet Union by engaging in a huge peacetime military buildup. He theorized that the Soviets could not keep up with the U.S. defense buildup financially and would wilt and disintegrate under the pressure. That’s what happened. Reagan knew that the Soviet Empire was weak at the bottom, and that the free enterprise system of American was very solid at its base. I still have my 14 straight issues of the Los Angeles Times whose front pages announced the dramatic breakup of the U.S.S.R, the subsequent attempted coup against Gorbachev by the hardliners, Yeltsin standing on a tank and demanding Gorbachev be released, and then the collapse of the coup. It was dramatic and stunning, as stunning to witness as it was to see men walk on the moon. And Reagan is the man primarily responsible for it.

I was a technical writer and editor during the Reagan presidency and helped implement his military buildup by working on manuals for the HARPOON and TOMAHAWK missile systems at Point Mugu and at the Port Hueneme Seabee Base, located just north of Point Mugu in Oxnard.

Some Reagan hater’s are criticizing the dead President for his domestic policies back in the 1980s. They say he was insensitive to the needs of minorities and the poor. It’s the usual left wing rhetoric that claims you must hate the poor if you don’t support every government handout program that is proposed in Congress. And except for a few obligatory kind words on the death of a former President, far left politicians like Senators Kerry and Kennedy are remaining pretty quiet. In this political season, they don’t want too many people to know how they really feel about Reagan’s policies.

Another thing Reagan did while president was to make it fashionable to be patriotic, to be proud to be an American. The Russians even complained at the time that he was stirring up too much “nationalism” in America. He ignored the Russians, just as he ignored his left wing detractors at home, which included most of the mass media, and he pursued his vision to make America and its values triumphant over Soviet communism. His modern day critics I’m sure will attempt to rewrite history and claim he played a minor role in the fall of communism, but the millions of people like me will keep the truth alive. Reagan’s modern day critics would probably like to see communism make a big comeback. We’ll keep that from happening too.

God bless you Mr. President. You still make us all feel proud to be American. Your death has reminded us that we are a great country and a great people.

The Wisconsin energy fair

I happen to be in Southern California with my family because we are on our way to the Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA) Fair in Custer, Wisconsin, which will be held June 18-20. We’ve exhibited at the MREA Fair for many years, but last year I couldn’t make it in person. I almost jeopardized my going to the Fair this year when I threw my back out a couple of days ago while lifting a computer into the back of my van. But the back has made a nice recovery and I’m babying it the remainder of the 1500-mile trip. If you get a chance to drop by the MREA Fair, please do. We’ll have some incredible buys on anthologies as we have several hundred already there with no way to bring back any unsold ones.

May 12, 2004

Why I will change my vote to Bush in November

The more I watch the news channels on TV, the madder I get. It’s almost totally driven by a Liberal agenda to defeat President Bush in November. It seems, at times, driven by an agenda to attack America as an evil country.

Tonight’s news is a good example. Earlier in the day a 26-year-old American businessman, Nick Berg, was decapitated in Iraq by Al Qaida terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a video shown on an Islamist website. Berg screamed as the terrorist began sawing off his head, then the terrorist held up the severed head for the camera and warned America of more of the same. Berg’s headless body was later found dumped on an Iraqi street.

Outrageous? Worthy of blanket coverage on all the news networks? I thought so. But only FOX news gave it the kind of coverage it deserved. As I channel surfed the other news stations—CNN, CNN Headline News, CNN International News, MSNBC, CBS—there was only a brief mention of the horrendous murder of Berg, but there was lengthy coverage of the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal. In fact, the Berg execution was linked to the prisoner abuse scandal in a subtle way as if the prisoner abuse caused Berg’s execution.

Why? Because CNN and their kind are far more interested in news they can use to attack the Bush Administration and the U.S. military. The prisoner abuse scandal fits that agenda quite nicely. Berg’s death was untimely for their purposes. It might detract from their agenda-driven news. Fox News, on the contrary, covered the Berg murder in full, interviewing congressmen and military experts who pointed out that the horrific nature of Berg’s death was important for the American people to see so they could understand the incredibly evil nature of the enemy we are fighting.

CNN and its Liberal allies did not want America to see the sadistic nature of our enemy, because it would interfere with their intention to show America the supposed sadistic nature of American military prison guards, and by inference the dereliction of duty all the way to Donald Rumsfeld and President Bush.

Let me make a prediction: This lopsided, distorted coverage by the agenda-driven Liberal news media will backfire on them and the Democrats they want so desperately to restore to power in November. I am a Libertarian who has voted for the Libertarian candidate in every presidential election for the past 32 years, up until last election when I voted for Bush because I thought Bush would embrace my Libertarian values. Bush did not, but neither will candidate John Kerry, so I had decided this November to go back to voting for the Libertarian candidate.

But the news media distortions I have been watching in recent weeks by the agenda-driven Liberal CNN, MSNBC, CBS, and the others has made me change my mind again. Instead I’m voting for Bush again, even though I fault him for passing legislation such as the PATRIOT Act, which I fervently disagree with. But Bush at least has a moral compass that guides him, and he appears to be a competent commander in chief in this war against terrorists. And he speaks well of America, not always trashing it like candidate Kerry and his CNN news media allies. And I flat out feel empathy for a President that the mass news media is piling on without mercy. I feel like they are piling on not only the President, but on me and my country—America!

And let me tell you why Bush will win in November: Americans know who they are and what is important. They know they are a good people with a few bad apples among them like the guards caught up in the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal. They also know that the Berg murder is more important than the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal because it represents the truly horrific crimes our enemy is capable of committing in the name of a misguided and distorted ideology.

The videotape of Berg’s murder on that Islamist website showed Berg dressed in orange overalls sitting bound on a white plastic chair in a bare room. Berg was made to kneel on the floor with five masked terrorists behind him.

"My name is Nick Berg, my father's name is Michael... I have a brother and sister, David and Sarah," said the bound man, adding he was from Philadelphia.

One of the masked terrorists read a statement urging Muslims to seek revenge after pictures were published of Iraqi prisoners being abused by U.S. troops at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

The terrorist then pushed the 26-year-old American to the floor and shouted "God is greatest" above his screams as one of them sawed his head off with a large knife then held it aloft for the camera.

If America’s news media can watch this murder and arbitrarily decide to push it aside in favor of more days of near nonstop reporting of the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal, then they are obviously a pack of lying, distorting agenda-driven ideologues who hate President Bush so much they will stop at nothing to try and force him from office.

Well I, Dave Duffy, am a voter who is fed up with your distortion, and you have convinced me to vote for a man I hadn’t intended to vote for—President Bush.

March 17, 2004

Gold Beach basketball celebrates American life

Amid all the terrorist threats and bombings in Europe and the Mideast, and amid America’s reprisals against terrorists around the world, here in the little town of Gold Beach, Oregon, we’re getting set to have our Rotary Basketball League end-of-season party at our local pizza shop. Honored guests are the seven boys, ages 10 to 12, who made up Backwoods Home Magazine’s entry into the Rotary League. Our team didn’t win a game all season but we had lots of fun, just like kids are meant to have in a small town, or any town. Tonight we’ll award each boy a good quality leather basketball so they’ll have the proper tool to continue improving their basketball skills.

As owner of the magazine, I’ll have the honor of presenting the basketballs to the kids, along with a roll of quarters so they can play video games while chowing down on pizza. Their parents will be there, of course, reminiscing with their boys about the great plays and near wins the team had during the season.

It’s how life in a small town should be, and is in Gold Beach. The other five teams in the Rotary League will have their celebrations in their own way. Maybe some will even be at the pizza parlor tonight, since it’s the only one in town. All the members of each of the six teams know each other, since they all go to the only grammar school in town, and most of the parents have at least seen each other at the games in our small grammar school gym.

Small town life in the age of terrorism goes on as usual, but the War Against Terrorists, like any war, is always in the back of our minds. It’s good we continue these celebrations with the achievements of our youth, lest we forget what we’re fighting for. Tonight’s basketball party will be free of the threat of any kind of violence, as it should be.

As one of the three coaches of the Backwoods Home team, this season was a reminder of what most youngsters want out of life: some fun, a chance to accomplish something, and an adult to help them along the way. We may not have won a game, but we had remarkable individual accomplishments all year long: Raymond, our only 6th grader, learned how to block out taller opponents for rebounds and scored a season high 8 points in our final game. Kyle, one of two 4th graders on the team, scored his first basket of the season during the final game with a brash spinning move under the basket that brought the crowd to its feet. Cameron, one of our four 5th graders, played aggressive defense the entire season, and I used him to show the other players how they too should play defense. The other four boys all had their inspired plays: Alex with an intercepted pass, Andrew with the final score of the final game, Joseph with his determined moves to the basket, and Robby, my son, with his crisp passes and driving layups all season long.

All these boys are little guys, weighing between 55 and 80 pounds. All are stars in their parents eyes. And all need to be raised in an environment such as we enjoy in the little town of Gold Beach. They, too, are aware of the terrorists and their attacks around the world. They know details of the World Trade Center attack, and they sometimes worry that it could happen in their town. But mostly, for this basketball season, they worried about knowing what they should do on the basketball floor during a game.

That’s how it should be, and we should never lose sight of that.

February 11, 2004

A Lifetime Subscription will get you a free Whole Sheebang!

I got a letter from Matt the other day asking if we offered a Lifetime Subscription to readers. I posted my answer to him in our Feedback section, saying we do, for $500, and our webmaster added the Lifetime Subscription offer to our General Store. Immediately a Mike from Tennessee bought one, and Matt said he and a buddy will probably each buy one soon.

It got me to thinking that we have not talked about Lifetime Subscriptions on the website ever, even though we have had some lifetime subscribers for years, from pre-website days. So I had a quick marketing meeting among the BHM staff and asked what they thought. What came out of the discussion was a most remarkable offer, namely, that we give away the Whole Sheebang, which includes all nine print anthologies, the EPSG book, cookbook, and all 12 of our CD-ROM anthologies, to anyone who buys a Lifetime Subscription. Plus we send lifetime subscribers a free copy of any anthology we publish in the future. Part of the Whole Sheebang also includes a two-year subscription, but that is redundant with a Lifetime Subscription, so that is why we added on free future anthologies, whether print or CD-ROM.

We’ve also decided that for any of you who have already bought the Whole Sheebang, you can order the Lifetime Subscription for only $300, should you want to get one.

This is a pretty generous offer for those willing to spend that kind of money, and it means you’ll never again have to worry about renewing your subscription to Backwoods or paying for a new anthology we publish in the future (we’ve got five more to publish just to get caught up to 2004), because it’ll all be paid for, for life.

We put the ad for the Lifetime Subscription on the Home Page right next to the Whole Sheebang offer so you can readily ascertain what you are getting.

Get your FREE copies of Defending America Issue

We’ve still got boxes of the Defending America Issue, which is really a Special Terrorism and Preparedness Report. If you'd like a FREE copy, it will cost you $2 for the postage and mailing envelope. If you’d like a FREE box of 60 copies, it will cost you $10 to cover the cost of the postage stamp and box.

February 6, 2004

Get a FREE Special Terrorism and Preparedness
Report for the price of the postage

One year ago Backwoods Home Magazine produced a special Defending America Issue with a lot of well researched articles on the terrorism threat that faced America. I spent several months researching and writing the two articles on smallpox that I contributed to the issue, and John Silveira spent at least that much time researching material for his article on the history of biological and chemical warfare. Other articles were on various preparedness strategies a person could follow to minimize a terrorist biological or chemical attack, at least at the personal level. It was an exceptional issue that really amounted to a Special Terrorism and Preparedness Report.

The issue was so good I had an extra 3,000 copies printed because I knew there would be a big demand for it. But guess what? Newsstand sales were awful for that issue, and the issue generated very few letters from subscribers. I had forgotten an important rule in the magazine publishing business, namely, that not many people are interested in bad or disturbing news. I still have 2,880 copies of that issue stacked in the office.

So in light of the recent ricin attacks in Washington D.C., I feel now is an appropriate time to revisit that special issue and get other people to read it. But rather than sell it or give it away as a premium of some sort, this time I’ll just give it away FREE to whoever is willing to pay the postage and the price of the envelope it will be mailed in. That totals $1.98 for first class postage and .03 cents for the envelope, for a total of $2.01. Round that off to $2. We’ll absorb the cost of producing and printing the issue and the 3% the credit card company will charge us if you pay with a credit card. This is not a gimmick. If you send for the issue you’ll see the $1.98 stamp on the envelope when it arrives in your mail box.

For anyone who wants a case or more of the report to give out to friends, or to give to a community seminar on terrorism preparedness, they are yours FREE as long as you pay shipping. You can call us (1-541-247-8900) for the quantity you want and we’ll weigh the quantity you want while you’re on the phone and give you the shipping cost.

I urge you to get a copy of this important and timely issue. FREE is the lowest price we’ve ever had. Click here to review the Table of Contents or Click Here to order.

February 2, 2004

Rowdy fans ruin New England Patriots win

A degenerate half time show

What did you think of that Super Bowl halftime show? Guy grabbing his crotch throughout the performance, then baring Janet Jackson's breast. Degeneracy is now prime time in America so all our kids can watch it at a football game. CBS and MTV heads apologized, but their apology comes too late. What are they doing playing rap crap for anyway at a Super Bowl halftime. Anyone who can afford the tickets to the Super Bowl is probably not a member of the teenage audience they were playing to.

It may be unfair for me to say so, but Janet Jackson being involved in a degenerate performance like the Super Bowl half time MTV show cannot be of much help to her brother, Michael, who is also accused of degeneracy. It seems like the family is engaged in a conspiracy to make the Jackson's look like a degenerate family. If Michael is seeking America's support to help sway the jury in his trial, this Super Bowl performance by a member of his family is not the way to go about getting it.

Starband revisisted

A couple of years ago I sang the praises of Starband for internet access after I signed onto their fast satellite internet service on my home computer. I was running about 300-500 Kbps with Starband compared to about 40 Kbps for my typical 56K telephone line modem. But times have changed. I've now abandoned Starband in favor of my old 56K modem because it is now faster and more reliable than Starband.

I'm not sure of the reasons but Starband has been slowing down on me gradually for half a year and had begun to lock up on me when doing e-mail in recent weeks. I spent about two hours on the phone with Starband's technical support about two weeks ago, but they could not solve the slowdown problem. When I did a speed test it showed me downloading at nearly 300 Kbps, but that type of speed was not appearing on my computer screen. Oliver Del Signore, this website's webmaster, suggested it may be corrosion on my cable connections at the satellite dish. I monkeyed with the connections for a while, then said to heck with it. Starband is costing me $65 per month, compared to $20 for a telephone hookup, and the telephone hookups at the office (we have three) have been real fast and dependable for us the last year.

After disconnecting Starband this morning and hooking up to the telephone line, my e-mail download was at least three times faster than what it had been at Starband. I know another company in the Midwest that has Starband and they say they are not experiencing any problems. Whatever my problems were, it is nice to have competition so I can go elsewhere immediately and get relief.

This change makes my e-mail address change to letters@backwoodshome.com rather than daveduffy@starband.net, so if you have me in your address book please change the address.

January 28, 2004

Cheering for the troops

I had an interesting encounter with a group of about a hundred U.S. Army soldiers a few days ago at Baltimore-Washington International Airport in Maryland. There were soldiers walking around and waiting at various ticket counters both to go home and to go to their duty stations. I talked with one young infantryman, Specialist Fourth Class John Rogers of the First Armored Division, who was in line in front of me at the U.S. Air counter. An infantry team leader, he was on his way back to Iraq, he said, after getting a few weeks R&R at home.

“How’s it going over there, really?,” I asked him.

“Better than before,” he said.

When I pressed him to explain, he said that things are actually going quite well. “The news media,” he said “dwells on the negative all the time. But there’s a lot of good going on. When I was first over there, there were little kids everywhere we went. Now there are only one or two because the rest of them are back in school. I think that’s a really good accomplishment.”

I told SP4 Rogers that this vet of the Vietnam era was very proud of him and encouraged him to keep up his spirits because most Americans were solidly behind the troops and realized that the media was focusing primarily on the negative.

A short while later, while awaiting my flight to Denver, an airline attendant at a nearby gate announced that he would allow some 25 U.S. Army soldiers to board the aircraft first. “They are just returning from Iraq,” he said, and suddenly the entire area of about 200 civilian passengers burst into spontaneous and sustained applause. It was very moving.

Later, when my flight was landing in Denver, the stewardess reminded us over the intercom that some of the passengers were soldiers returning home from Iraq. Again, spontaneous applause.

The applause contrasted sharply with 1969 when I got out of the Army. There was a lot of open civilian animosity to soldiers back then. The war in Vietnam had been unpopular for several years, and even I had decided it was just a politician’s war. But there was no excuse for the way many civilians treated the returning GIs. It’s nice to see this new generation of young GIs treated with respect.

Another skunk story

I shot another skunk today, this one outside for a change. Unfortunately the nasty critter sprayed by black lab, Molly, first. A pot of cinnamon and water simmering on the stove does wonders for skunk odor. But it still stinks outside. Skunks have no manners or sense. You’d think they’d just go off and leave you alone once you let them know you’re not going to put up with them spraying your animals and house. But they just keep on coming. I guess they’re so used to getting away with it with other animals in Nature that they figure they can get away with it with the human animal. A shotgun makes a great big statement to a dirty skunk.

January 26, 2004

Contrasting the important with the unimportant

In addition to the War In Iraq, there are two important things going on in America today: the landing of a second American Mars rover in a month, which is a stunning scientific achievement, and the inexorable march of the Boston Patriots to the Superbowl, which is very important to Bostonians and former Bostonians like me. A bunch of Democrats shading the truth are also running in various Presidential primaries, but despite the lopsided media coverage they receive, these candidates and primaries are about as important as a big icicle melting on your porch.

What I think is striking is the contrast in truth between these events. The Mars rovers and the Patriots are all about reality, while the Democratic primaries are all about distorting your opponents’ beliefs, exaggerating your own accomplishments, and weaving fantastic stories about what you’ll do if elected President. I don’t really mean to pick on Democrats because Republicans do the same thing.

Look at the success of the Mars landers. Based on science and the hope to discover truths about Mars, the scientists and engineers who are orchestrating these remarkable achievements deal solely in the truth. They just want to advance mankind’s knowledge. Even in the face of Bush’s proposed increase in their funding, NASA scientists are simply not inclined to lie about anything. They deal in the discovery of facts.

And look at the Patriots. In historical context I suppose Superbowl XXXVIII is not all that important except to football nuts like me, but they are engaged in the pure pursuit of the truth as to who is the best football team in America. I’m sure it is the Patriots, but if Carolina beats them on Sunday I will admit that Carolina is the best. Sports competition, played without cheating, is a definitive judgment of truth.

Now look at the Presidential primaries. It makes you kind of queasy in the stomach to listen to their half truths and attacks on their opponents. The media is full of political types distorting their candidates and the opposing candidates positions. I am a political junky in the way I scan the TV and radio channels listening to the politicians, analysts, and pundits of all types, but it is such a welcome relief to be able to turn to the NASA channel and the sports channels to listen to people who are actually seeking the truth.

Back Home From Back East

I returned from a one-week long trip to Maryland and Boston yesterday, and I’m thankful to be away from the freezing temperatures of the Northeast. I apparently accidentally deleted an informative e-mail someone sent me regarding the diminishing amount of e-mail spam I and others have been getting during the last month or so. I’m not sure how I deleted it, but I was attempting to send it to the BHM webmaster so it could be posted in our Feedback (letters) section of the website. If you are the sender of that e-mail I’d appreciate it if you would send it to me again so I can post it on the website.

January 13, 2004

Skunk, spam, and the mighty Patriots

One dead skunk

I finally found a use for steel shotgun shells. They’re no good for hunting birds over water, as is required by game regulations, but they’re sure good at killing a skunk. My son, Jake, spotted this big momma skunk in our barn as he and his two little brothers were about to watch a movie in the clubhouse they had built among the 40,000 copies of BHM anthologies stored there. Unfortunately the barn and, in fact, my whole five acres stinks of skunk. Shows you my bad skunk luck. I’ve shot three skunks in five years--one inside my house, one in the chicken coop after he killed the rooster, and now one in the barn. If you get a copy of a BHM anthology with some T-shot pellets in it, you’ll know why. We won’t send you a book that smells skunky, however.

We had been trying to catch this skunk for a week with a Havahart Trap but every morning the trap would be closed but no skunk and no bait. We figured that mice were getting to the cat food bait before the skunk, then simply slipping out of the cage. I’ll bet we’ve gone through 30 candles trying to get rid of the stink in the bathroom and a cup of cinnamon cooking in a pot of water on the stove. There’s got to be a better solution to skunks than spending a week every year fighting what is essentially a disastrous battle with them. This year I had done a lot of skunk proofing, including stapling hardware cloth to the underside of exposed foundation areas. Maybe I’ll try one of those electronic high pitch noise makers they sell.

What happened to the spam?

I have a question I’m having difficulty getting answered to my satisfaction. Up until a month or so ago I was getting a hundred or so pieces of spam a day. It was driving me crazy and clogging up my mail box. Now I’m only getting a dozen or less. It’s the same with other people at BHM, both for those who work on the West Coast and those who work on the East Coast. What has caused this marvelous curtailment?

Going to New England to root for the Patriots

I’m going to Maryland and Boston for a week to visit my three brothers. While there I plan to shake hands with every New Englander I meet and wish them luck in the rest of the playoffs. I am a totally loyal Patriots fan. The Patriots are like the Boston Celtics during the Russell era: no big superstar, but a team that works together to win. You’ve got to love that about a team.

The Superbowl will really be the AFC championship game pitting New England against Indianapolis. New England, should they win, will have no trouble against either Carolina or Philly. My prediction? Philly residents will burn and riot if they lose this week to Carolina, but will wait til they lose the Superbowl to burn and riot if they beat Carolina. Then they’ll burn and riot whether they win or lose. And you can take that prediction to the bank. New England fans will celebrate wildly, but without burning anything down.

Homeschooling and taxes

It was 53 degrees and sunny this weekend in rainy Oregon. I’m taking my oldest son, Jake, age 12, back to New England with me. I hope it’s still freezing back there. It’ll be a great education for him to see the difference in winter between there and Oregon. This trip also sets up an interesting homeschool assignment for Jake: Since we’ll drive down to Oakland and take our flight back East from there, we’ve decided to spend one night checking out the seafood on San Francisco’s waterfront. Jake’s assignment is to compare the shellfish he eats in San Francisco to the shellfish he eats in Boston. Tough assignment for this avid fish and shellfish eater!

This trip to Maryland and Boston, of course, will observe Tax Rule Number 1: Never go on any trip until you figure out how to make it into a legitimate business trip you can write off. I’ll be working with BHM’s webmaster, Oliver Del Signore, and staying at his house in Boston. I’ll also meet up with Jeff Yago, BHM’s prolific writer of solar energy articles, in Maryland, to discuss a possible on line solar course he wants to give to our website visitors. And of course I always seek the business advice from my two older brothers in Maryland since they are a lot smarter than I am.

The only problem I have with this trip is I am afraid of flying. So I just suck it up, breathe deep, get on the plane, and try to go to sleep. I always sit in the aisle so I can’t see anything outside. Jake likes to fly and wants the window seat. I’ve been afraid of flying long before the terrorist threat materialized. The possibility of terrorism simply raises my abnormal fear to one of sheer terror.

January 5, 2004

If you want real life drama, check out our latest Mars landing

l hope you’ve been watching this Mars rover landing by NASA. My family and I were up until midnight taking it all in live on the NASA channel. Those NASA scientists and engineers, many of whom by the way subscribe to BHM, were cheering and hugging each other like their team had just made the winning touchdown in the Superbowl. It took six minutes from the time the spacecraft entered the Martian atmosphere for it to touch down, and it was a nail-biting six minutes.

In a nutshell, NASA launched this rover, named Spirit, from Cape Canaveral, Florida on June 10, 2003. It launched a twin rover, named Opportunity, on July 7, 2003. Spirit landed Saturday night at Gusev Crater, which is the size of Connecticut and may have once held a huge lake, and shortly afterward it began sending back fabulous photos of the Mars surface. Opportunity will land January 25 halfway around the planet at Meridiana Planum, which is an area that also looks like it held lots of water.

The goal of both Spirit and Opportunity is to search for evidence that Mars contained sufficient water in the past to have supported life. Not only are these missions laudable science discovery adventures, but they enormously enhance the prestige of America, especially in light of the recent failure of both Japanese and European space agencies to put rovers on Mars. This is the fourth successful mission to put rovers on Mars, all by the U.S., and follows the much publicized U.S. failure in 1999. This successful mission essentially revitalizes NASA.

If you want to learn a lot of details about Spirit and Opportunity beyond what is available in the mass media, go to www.NASA.gov. They have some especially nifty videos and animations of the launch, descent to Mars, and landing at www.nasa.gov/externalflash/m2k4/index1.html. The site is updated daily.

Here are a few of the details that impress me. Mars, on average, is about 50 million miles from Earth, but the spacecraft that delivered Spirit to Mars travelled about 300 million miles. Compare that to a journey to the moon of about 300,000 miles. Spirit and Opportunity are going to have to be hardy in a cold environment because the average temperature on Mars is minus 81 degrees, and the nighttime temperature will plunge to minus 157 degrees. Each rover carries eight radioisotope heater units to keep its battery and electronics warm enough to work; otherwise things might stop functioning below about minus 67 degrees. Each rover also has eight cameras that deliver superb quality photos, making this Mars adventure available to the public on a daily basis on the NASA Channel and other news channels that choose to carry the photos.

The way this Mars rover landed was rather spectacular. As it descended to the Mars surface, air bags deployed around Spirit and then it was cut loose to bounce around the surface. It bounced up to four stories high for about half a mile across the surface. Then the air bags deflated and the spacecraft’s petals opened up, revealing the Spirit rover. Spirit deployed its solar panels to get its electricity from the sun. Although Spirit has already sent back great photos, it’ll be a few days, possibly up to nine, before it deploys its wheels and begins roving around the surface. Each rover should operate through April and possibly a little longer.

With its main mission to ascertain the geologic record of Mars in search of clues of past water sufficient to support life, each rover contains a variety of different probing devices, including microscopes, spectrometers, drills, and a Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) located on a robotic arm to scrape away the surface of rocks and examine the undersurface. The geologic probing tools come not only from the U.S., but also from Germany and Denmark.

This is really a great event for the U.S. and for science. The U.S. is the only country to put successful probes on Mars, and this is our fourth. Opportunity, if successful, will be our fifth. Lots of interesting things will be happening with these two probes in the coming weeks and several months. If we determine, as many scientists suspect, that life once existed on Mars, its begs the question: So what happened? And what are the implications for Earth?

The philosophical questions are immense. If signs of past life are found, and I predict they will be, what does it mean? What type of past life will we be able to detect? Will we be able to tell how advanced it became? It is a tremendously exciting time.

The NASA Channel, which came free with my DISH Network package, is the place to keep on top of it. These two probes are part of an ongoing daily “live” drama you can see for yourself on the NASA Channel, long before the news channels report anything.

NASA plans to send more missions to Mars, at regular 26-month intervals. Mars, by the way, is the closest it has been to Earth in 60,000 years, which makes it a more accessible target.

Meanwhile, on Earth, I’ve been grappling with my own slightly less technical technological problems in the form of a skunk. It’s living under my bedroom I think, stinking up the house and threatening to eat our chickens located about 15 yards from the house. Last year a skunk killed our rooster before I shot it--inside the chicken house.

I’ve got my snakeshot handy, and my sons and I have conducted nighttime searches, but without success so far. To complicate things I think I’ve developed a hernia during the last couple of days, thus limiting my ability to get under the house after the skunk. Further complicating things are my four cats and dog which are rattling the skunk and causing it to spray.

But if NASA can successfully send two probes 300 million miles to Mars, I’ll be damned if a skunk under my house is going to make me look like a technological idiot.

December 23, 2003

Monday Night Football turns into a tribute to great Dads everywhere

I’m on my last few days of a real bad case of flu here in the wet mountains of Oregon, so I thought sitting in front of the TV to a relaxing game of Monday Night Football featuring the Packers and Raiders would be about the perfect medicine. Outside New England, the Packers are my favorite team, and they needed a win to keep pace in the NFC playoff race. I was right. The game lifted me both physically and spiritually.

Brett Favre’s father, Irvin Favre, had died suddenly the night before in a car accident, so the announcers talked a lot about their relationship during the game: how close father and son were, how the family came to Oakland to support Favre, how the team left it up to Favre whether or not he played. You did not see Favre emotional on the sidelines, but you saw him subdued. During lulls throughout the game, team member after team member would come up to Favre, say a few words, then give him a hug.

On the field, you’d have thought it was the old “let it all hang out” Brett Favre as he scrambled around behind the line of scrimmage while throwing four TDs and passing for a total of 399 yards. He had the best QB rating of any game in his career.

Perhaps by accident or perhaps willfully, Brett Favre turned the game into the greatest tribute he could have given to a father he loved so much and who played such a critical role in the development of Favre as a human being and football player. And there’s no separating this finely honed pleasant human being from that perfectly timed pass that comes off his arm.

And while Favre paid tribute to his Dad by his on-field performance, for the rest of us onlookers who have benefited from great Dads in our past, this Monday Night Football game became a living tribute in our private homes to many of our Dads.

My Dad, Walter Duffy, was my friend, fishing companion, favorite chess opponent, and personal confessor as I grew up. He taught me everything, from using tools to standing up for myself on the playground. And even though I am already three years older than he was when he died, I still have difficulty telling other people how great he was without first shedding some tears.

We have a picture of my wife’s Dad, Julian Myers, hanging on our living room wall. She lost him when she was only 15, but his portrait still is a reminder to her about how she should conduct her life, how she should work hard, and put her family first. When the occasion arises, she talks to our three sons about him.

Great Dads are one of the key American family treasures that keeps America safe, strong, and free. Great Dads will do anything for their children, especially teach them how to take care of themselves in a perilous world, and they don’t hesitate to collar them when they stray off the paths of right and wrong. My daughter, Annie, is about to give birth to the son or daughter of another budding great Dad, her husband, USMC LCpl Erik Tuttle.

Thank you Brett Favre for making this Monday Night Football into much more than a Packers’ beat-up on the Raiders. After I’m dead, I want to be remembered just like your Dad is remembered, just like my Dad is remembered, and just like my wife’s Dad is remembered...someone who first protected and sheltered my four children, then later served as a powerful example of how you could live your life. Perhaps they will do the same for their children, and on and on.

A terrorist magnet in the Iraqi desert

I don't get it. Isn't that what we want-the enemies of America drawn to one point in the Iraqi desert so we can kill them with our most lethal Army unit, the Fourth Infantry Division, which is backed up all kinds of highly trained special ops troops? Surely we don't want Al Qaida and the rest dispersed all over the world, infiltrating America through airports and ships and trying to pull off another 911. They are all coming to Iraq where we can face them with our most highly trained and best equipped soldiers. What's wrong with that?

It sounds like President Bush, inadvertently or not, has created a great magnet in the desert that is bringing our enemies where we can fight and destroy them on our terms. We don't have to risk American civilian casualties, and we can let up on enforcing the Patriot Act in America if we can kill most of these terrorists in Iraq.

Sometimes I think certain politicians are so blinded by their hatred of President Bush and any success he has in Iraq that they say things that sound sensible on the surface but when examined reveal one of the magnificent opportunities presented by post-war Iraq. America has created the perfect battleground, one where all jihadists, Al Qaida, and anyone else hankering for a crack at all those virgins in the afterlife can get to easily. Let's encourage them to come, then send them off to get those virgins.

Let the French and Russians stew

Even now there is little cooperation from them. To them, America is the villain in this war, and Saddam Hussein is somehow the poor ousted Iraqi leader. Oh sure, they give lip service to the notion that Hussein was a sadistic killer who employed barbaric Fedayeen to brutalize and murder his own people. But that’s about it--lip service. America is there number one villain.

Not only that, but the French, Russians, and Germans were the pre-war collaborators with Hussein. They profited to the tune of billions of dollars as they helped him build his murderous regime. This reconstruction of Iraq is being paid for largely with American money. Should we give American money to hostile French, Germans, and Russians who propped up the Hussein regime in the first place?

France said it will study America’s decision “to see if it follows international law.” What a joke. American soldiers are dying while they try and dismantle a regime propped up by France, so now they’re going to check the fine print of international law. I suppose they’ll also go back to the United Nations and get a few more anti-American resolutions passed. Maybe France should just look in the mirror and ask themselves why in the world they spent a decade selling arms to the Iraqi murderer in the first place so that when it got time to get rid of him they found themselves on the wrong side of the fence against the Americans.

Canada’s incoming Prime Minister Paul Martin said the decision was “very difficult to fathom.” Difficult to fathom? You too look at yourself in the mirror. Examine your behavior towards America since this Iraq business began. Should we now give you a big kiss and a bundle of cash in return for your anti-Americanism?

And the European Union’s executive body, the European Commission, said it would “study whether the order violates World Trade Organization rules.” Stick it in your ear if it does. American soldiers are dying in Iraq. Take your WTO rules and shove them unless you’re willing to send troops to risk dying alongside ours.

And look at our own American Democrat politicians. Presidential hopeful Bob Kerry of Massachusetts can be forgiven, I guess, for immediately bashing President Bush over the ban because he’s running for President and is way behind. He’s reaching around for any kind of cheap ammo he can find.

But it’s harder to forgive Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He says the ban does “everything to alienate countries we need with us in Iraq.” You should have been reading the papers for the past year Joe. We can’t alienate these people any further than they have alienated themselves. They can’t be any more anti-American than they are now. Those bastards need a wakeup call from America like this ban. They are the ones who need to take the first steps back towards the only country that has the guts to face down brutal tyrants like Hussein.

Who are the eligible bidders for these contracts? They include our real friends: Great Britain, Australia, Spain, Italy, Poland, and Japan, some of whom have shed blood alongside American troops. The Iraqi people too can bid on the contracts, and the contracts, no matter who gets them, will employ hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.

Banning countries like France, Russia, Germany, and Canada from these contracts is the right thing to do. Just ask the soldiers who are putting their lives on the line.

Read More by Dave Duffy

Dave Duffy is the editor and publisher of Backwoods Home Magazine.

His email address is editor@backwoodshome.com